#its the evangalism mindset

[automaticstarlightcomputer]

The anti theism tag is overrun with cultists and morons. I'm bashing my fucking head into a wall can you freaks stay in your goddamn tags

[unfocusedwill]

how to heal week 1 as disc

On the release of a new raid, a lot of disc players opt to play holy during week 1. The reason is obvious - without familiarity with boss mechanics and most likely inaccurate timers, it’s easier to play a reactive healer spec.

Should you wish to undertake the trial by fire of playing disc on week 1, be prepared to do a bit of prep work and to have an adaptive mindset.

Read the dungeon journal and set up your raid frame indicators. I find it useful to do these things together. I have a system of Grid2 indicators that I use across all healer specs/boss encounters which make it clear what a boss ability does, based on the way/location/size it’s displayed on the frames. I might do a separate post on this someday.

Prune your bossmods! Remove notifications for things irrelevant to your strategy as disc. Timer bars for abilities that don’t affect your planning, such as Void Crash (purple ground swirlies) and the obviously telegraphed Cerebral Assault (MC cone) on Restless Cabal, can be safely disabled. The cleaner you can get your bossmod, the better. I also take this time to add countdowns and different sound notifications.

If you’re forgetful or more of a hands-on learner like me, it might be useful to create your own private strategy notes (RT Note, AA, WA, etc.) In this I tried to record the damage patterns of important mechanics - or my best guess based on the tooltips, anyways.

Decide what talents you want to use based on your prep work so far. For RC I went with Evang because Storm of Annihilation is a very obvious and controllable time to ramp, and its duration is long enough for full Evang value. For Uu’nat, because damage events appeared to be bursty and rather short, I took LB. (In retrospect, people were also spread and running around like headless chickens which would’ve ruined Barrier value.)

Iterate! I didn’t tryhard by watching dayraid streams - aside from the dungeon journal-based prep mentioned above, I went in otherwise completely blind. The self-learning process is fun to me and one of the reasons I play week 1 disc. When your raid starts pulling, be ready to fill in the gaps in your knowledge and adjust/solidify your strategy based on new information. As an example, I hadn’t been aware of how exactly the dot damage from Gaze of N’zoth (beams) would work - I thought it would be a dot that I reactively atone. After seeing it, I would consider that a potential mechanic to proactively ramp.

All of these steps are beneficial regardless of spec. Disc just amplifies it to a more noticeable degree.

Yes, it’s a bit of work and yes, you could just play holy instead. At least for me, though, it strikes the right balance between effort and fun.

[sanshynapa-blog]

BEST OF TWENTY EIGHTEEN

2018 is a beautiful year, indeed. A lot of unexpected happenings and unwelcomed situations that turned into lessons happened. There are times I’m thinking of giving up, to escape and even to get lost, but I still chose to stay and face the challenges. I know it wasn’t a good start, but this years, I’m really grateful for all the blessings I’ve received.

Before I say goodbye to 2018, first, let me share some of the highlights of my year. My heart can’t stop being thankful so it’s more likely a very long blog, it’s worth of your time though (I guess). So let’s start!

INTERNSHIP IN PULP

It's an answered prayer opportunity that taught me to trust and believe in myself. Before I received a call from the company, I thought everyone have already rejected me, thinking I didn’t meet any of their qualifications due to my incapabilities. It hurts, but I’m more depressed and stressed. I need this for my graduation, can’t they just be more considerate? Sounds pathetic but my mind was shouting that for a week. I thought I’m done when I’m not even starting, but PULP saved me. Whether its a luck or faith, I worked hard for my certificate.

Completing the hours you needed for your program is just a thing, but spending those time to reach your dreams is another discussion. From the moment I accepted the fact that I’m a part of the growing fan-base of K-pop, the goal of watching live concerts and participate in different productions already grew on me, and my internship acted as way of achieving those goals of mine. I’ve watched four concerts in total without paying any amount. Daebak! Who would thought I could see EXO while they are practicing backstage? Could you imagine I’ve picked up Seventeen in airport and slept in same hotel? Or Super Junior waved back on me when when I shouted their names? Well, nothing is impossible when you work hard to make it possible.

Hang on, there’s more! Last April, PULP published a magazine where my name was included. I’m really honored and flattered to be part publishing and production team. I couldn’t ask for more. For 200 hours, I was living my life in fantasy, chasing and working for my dreams I thought I’ll never achieve.

     2. COLLEGE GRADUATION

This is the part where I bid farewell to my comfort zone and celebrate for my victory. Though I have to prepare for a new beginning, I couldn’t be much prouder of myself as I walked in red carpet wearing my toga and received my diploma. The butterflies inside my stomach was celebrating with me. I don’t know how to calm myself especially when I saw my grandmother smiling and cheering for me. I waved back to her with a big smile on my face but I was crying inside. Finally, I did something special for her. She did everything just to gave me a comfortable life. She’s my inspiration and my college graduation is one of the best gift I could ever give to her.

Despite of the hardships and challenges I’ve faced in four years of my college, I always start my day with determination. Even I need to wake up three o’clock every morning and travel two and half hour, or read my lectures and do my assignments in bus or cab just to be on time, I never thought of quitting. I would rather choose to run 10 laps in oval than to disappoint my grandmother. She wanted me to see in my toga and get my college diploma, so I did.

My college graduation means a lot to me. It opened a lot of doors - and one of that is the opportunity to give back to those people who helped and supported me. I cannot guarantee a hundred percent luxurious life for them, but I promise to work harder and make them proud.

    3. WORKS IN CHRISTY EVANGE

This time, I will be more honest and sincere with my words. Searching for a job is never an easy task. Hoping for a miracle and keep on asking yourself, “should I look for a job that I really want or just get anything?” Reality hits me hard. Whether you’re a graduate or not, you have to take a risk in finding the right job for you.

Amidst of my reflection, I received a call that offered me to do both - amass new information that will help grow as a person and support my family. I know I don’t have an excellent writing skill, and I’m not even good in communication. That’s why I always doubt myself, I wasn’t even sure if there’s really an existing job for me. But someone saved me and keep on saving me.

She introduced different field of work to me. Of course, at first, I thought I’m making a boring and stodgy life. I accepted it in the thought of no one will ever hire me. Days have passed and I started to learn new things. I finished works I never thought I could do. It’s totally a new thing to me.

Aside from giving me diverse experiences, she also bear a hand to help me provide for my family. It’s not even a year since I started working for her, but she already helped me in many ways. Hypothetically, she’s giving me too much - too much trust, too much incentives, too much opportunities. All I can do for her is to stay faithful and keep on improving myself to execute a better work performance.

     4. WORKS IN ABS-CBN CORPORATION

When you dream, aim for the best. Never waste your energy for nothing. That’s why ABS-CBN Corporation is on the top of my list. Honestly, I’m still on cloud nine until now. I never really thought of wearing an employee I.D from this company. I’m just fan! I don’t even had guts to apply during my internship, and it was totally an accident. I just clicked the apply button but I didn’t expect to get any response. More specifically, I never thought I’m capable to work and be part of this company. But BOOM! I’m hired. This is really a great gift from above and this is one of the highlights of my life I want to keep and protect.

Unlike in school, doing your best in your work is just a common thing. There’s a bigger picture you need to consider. (1) Learn from your mistakes and experiences - that’s the mindset you should have. Yes, there are times you’ll make errors but don’t make it a habit, instead, get the hang of it. (2) Presence of mind - the phrase I often heard this year and I always put on my mind to avoid creating a mess. Life is beautiful, but life is also difficult.

I’m fully aware it’s not an easy path but quitting won’t speed up my journey. I cried once when my team leader scolded me and almost break down thinking this job doesn’t suits me. But then, I realized I’m just overreacting. Honestly speaking, I’m really thankful and grateful for my head, team leader, and workmates. Tough love or whatever, what I know is they always provide a room for improvement. I can confidently claim I didn’t just achieved my dream of working in this company, I also found a family.

Three more nights to go before this year ends. I really had a good time in riding your exhausting but super interesting ride. I learned that things don’t always turn out the way you planned or the way you think they should but you can always get through the bad times and keep looking for better ones. I also finished another story of my life and now, I’m starting a new chapter which has an endless page. It took 16 years to finish a degree, but it’s still unclear how many years I’m going to spend in my next journey. Whether it takes forever, as long as I have dreams and promises to keep and achieve, I would never dare to give up, not even in a single second of my life.

I’m welcoming the new year with a big smile and a warm hug. I’m going to embrace all the challenges that 2019 brings for me and keep on improving. Thank you 2018 for a great experience! Cheers for a new beginning!

[unfocusedwill]

Flow

aka feelyplay

Flow, or being “in the zone”, is “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”1

This is a psychology concept that’s been on my mind for a while. I approach disc raid healing from a state of flow. Aside from micro posts, I don’t care to discuss “how” to play disc in the more general sense because 1) there’s plenty of disc resources out there already, and 2) most general disc discussion reads like an opinionated pursuit of theoretical perfection, but at the cost of practical use.

I wanted to write a post on flow because the intuitive play that comes from flow is seemingly at odds with the algorithmic, pre-planned style of disc. Or is it?

Intuitive sense doesn’t come out of nowhere. A cartoon artist could quickly draw a character and make it look good, but first they spent years building a strong foundation by doing realism studies, going to art school, etc. I feel that it’s the same with disc.

Developing flow: Guides and resources are a fine starting point for learning any class/spec... but who guides the guide writers? Who guides the WF guilds? If you want to someday be no longer dependent on others to figure out how to play your spec, you need to constantly ask yourself not just “what should I cast”, but “why should I cast that?” Take it a step even further and play the devil’s advocate with yourself/the written guides: “is there any case where I wouldn’t want to do that?”

Over time, this builds the foundation where you understand how your spells work together, and what your kit is or isn’t capable of. My goal with disc is to play it as a standalone healer spec that can plug-and-play in any raid team, with any healer comp. It’s true that disc’s throughput can reach disgusting new heights when provided with an environment that caters to it, but that’s quite frankly toeing the line of cheese/farm strats -- and distracts from the reality of other less-than-ideal situations, which are far more common.

Playing with flow: There’s a lot about the healing environment that’s difficult to feel fully simply from looking at logs or by studying disc gameplay under ideal/”sim” conditions.

Healing patterns: How quickly do your cohealers react to expected (or unexpected) damage? Do they attempt to top people off right away, or trust in HoTs? Do they snipe?

Damage/mechanic patterns: During a healing window, how often does the damage tick? Every 0.5, 1, 2,... seconds? Is there a point during your burst where you’ll have to move, e.g. to dodge the frog during Pa’ku’s winds on Conclave?

Healing x damage patterns: How much of your atonement window is going to overhealing? Would you get more out of an extra upfront global of atonement healing, or the direct heal from a well-timed Radiance? Should your ramp complete before the damage begins, or as it begins? Should you Schism-Solace-Penance-Smite, in that order, or switch it around? Delay your next cast half a second? Or even dare refresh SWP/PtW during your atonement window.. or Schism before you cast Evang?

For me, flow is a combination of the principle of Always Be Casting and a passive awareness of the dynamics of cohealer healing output x raid damage intake x mechanical constraints. I feel a sense of flow because I’m always doing something, and always sensitive to what’s going on around me. Most importantly, forget about the “rules” of disc. What you cast is unimportant. What matters is what you are able to accomplish with your casts.

If I were to receive log analysis from anyone ‘well known’ in the disc community, they would find no shortage of things that I do “wrong.” My ramps are often quite weird. I play “suboptimally” or completely out of order. I refresh dots during my atonement windows, I Evang before casting my second charge of Radiance, I apply atonements during my burst. I unironically take Luminous Barrier sometimes. You name it - it’s probably in there somewhere.

If we were all playing in a vacuum with ideal conditions, where following a textbook ramp->burst cast sequence would always result in the best performance, they would be right. You can probably see where this is going..

Some TCers might carefully respond that there’s “always exceptions”, but that the recommended ramp sequence/talent setup/etc. is generally correct. I dislike this phrasing because it creates the mindset that one way is the standard. It encourages blindly following a formula unless told otherwise, instead of living and adapting to the evidence before your own eyes.

I think it would be fair to say that more than any other healing spec, playing disc requires balancing many different moving parts. The boss encounter and your co-healers are also moving parts, so include and react to them as a core part of your play, not just as an afterthought!